(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc holding an image signal, an image signal transmitting apparatus utilizing such optical disc and an image signal transmitting method, which are mainly applied to a broadcasting system including a cable television service (CATV) for broadcasting repeatedly an image at a certain cycle.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Recently a service for broadcasting repeatedly a single program at a fixed cycle has been provided so that viewers can watch the program whenever they want. The cycle is usually fixed to be longer than the time required for the reproduction of the program to be broadcasted, therefore no image or a still picture showing a start time of the next reproduction of the program appears at an interval between reproductions of the program.
In order to broadcast the program and the still picture one after the other, an apparatus is constructed as shown in FIG. 1. Such device is equipped with an image signal reproduction device 11 for reproducing a signal of the program, a still picture signal generation device 12 for generating a signal of the still picture to display the start time of the program, a selector 13 for selecting either the program signal or the still picture to be outputted to an output terminal 14, and a controller 15 for controlling the devices 11 through 14.
A control by the controller 15 is operated as described hereunder. When the program is being reproduced, the controller 15 controls the image signal reproduction device 11 and the selector 13 so that the image signal reproduction device 11 reproduces the program signal while it is selected by the selector 13 to be outputted to the output terminal 14. When the reproduction of the program is completed, the controller 15 controls the still picture signal generation device 12 and the selector 13 so that the still picture signal generation device 12 generates the still picture signal while it is selected by the selector 13 to be outputted to the output terminal 14. Such control is repeated at a fixed cycle so that the program is provided at the fixed cycle.
However, the information provided by the above apparatus is simply what the viewers get from a program schedule table despite that the above apparatus needs additional devices such as the still picture signal generation device 12, the selector 13, and the controller 15.
In order to broadcast an image more useful than the still picture, another apparatus is conceivable. As shown in FIG. 2, the apparatus is equipped with a time display image signal generation device 22 instead of the still picture signal generation device 12, for generating a signal of an image to display a waiting time for next reproduction of the program.
Further, another apparatus is conceivable, As shown in FIG. 3 the apparatus is equipped with another image signal reproduction device 36 and an image superimposer 37. The reproduction device 36 and the image superimposer 37 are operated so that image superimposer 37 superimposes the waiting-time display on a background image, including a commercial image, reproduced by the image signal reproduction device 36.
The apparatuses in FIG. 2 and 3 have an advantage of informing viewers of the waiting time for the next reproduction of the program; furthermore, the latter apparatus has an additional advantage of providing various information by superimposing the waiting-time display on another image. However, the complicated construction of the apparatus in FIG. 1, which is the drawback thereof, still remains in the apparatuses in FIG. 2 and 3.